Uh, so it has taken me all week to finally write this post and that's because we had quite a log of orders coming out of the thanksgiving holiday. We've been picking and packing as fast as we can and just might catch up today, TGIF! I just brewed up a pot of this Costa Rica from Guillio Francesca and it tastes wonderful, with the balanced nutty flavor profile that goes along with our light City+ roast. This coffee would be nice roasted a bit darker with more of the chocolate flavors coming to the fore, but Tom wanted to keep this light so we roasted only to 425 degrees by thermoprobe. The roasting profile we used slows the roast down dramatically toward the end which allows the coffee to gently cruise through first crack around 402 degrees and at 12 minutes in to the roast. Final roast times were in the 15:30 ballpark. I roasted the Moka Kadir just a shade past the Full City+ range, with second crack beginning to pick up steam but not quite full-blown.

It is tuesday evening after a busy day getting orders out the door and taking care of walk-in customers picking up and placing orders. I finally had a chance to sit down and enjoy a cup of the Kenya Tegu we roasted on Monday and love the juicy sweetness in this lively cup. Tom suggested roasting this batch to 435 degrees which took about 15:30 minutes on the Probat. Kenya coffees can be overpoweringly bright, but this lot has a good quality of acidity, which reminds the cupper that acidity has many shades. For the espresso we roasted our Classic Italian Blend which was brought up to around 460 degrees on the Probat in 15:45. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We have another coffee to release from our vault of mid-crop Costa Ricas (i.e. lots we have vacuum packed to roll out later in the season). Costa Rica Guillio Francesca -Finca Guadelupe is a classic, crowd-pleaser cup profile from a coffee farmer who is quite a character! We have our first premium Lintong-area coffees, coincidently arriving just as I returned from Sumatra. The king of all Sumatras is the large bean selection Sumatra Lake Toba 19+ Extra Bold (formerly Lake Tawar - see the review) is a potent, brutish cup, and the specially-prepared Sumatra Lintong Blue Batak is really no less potent, with chocolate, caramel, herbal hints, tobacco, and that bittersweet finish.